Eclectic and striving never to follow paths into ruts, the OF Blog focuses on essays, reviews, interviews, and other odds and ends that might be of interest to fans of both literary and speculative fiction. Now with a cute owl for your enjoyment.

Saturday, January 02, 2010

New day/night, new year, new...something. Not going to do resolutions as such (although I did meet virtually every one of the 2009 ones I posted) as I'm going to outline some broad goals, particularly those related to this blog and my reading/reviewing responsibilities.

1. To read much more short fiction, collected and uncollected alike, than I have in previous years. I think this is a safe bet.

2. To review at least a half-dozen authors I have never reviewed before.

3. To continue concentrating on books, authors, and movements that are not discussed as much (or at all) on the majority of the blogs currently on my Blogroll.

4. To keep full-time employment long enough to a) travel the Blue Ridge Parkway in June and b) perhaps to finally attend a SF/F convention for the first time ever. Most likely bet, if such a thing were to come to pass, would be the WFC, since it's only a 4-5 hour drive for me and I ought to have some vacation time then (provided, of course, that I don't change jobs, which is a 50/50 proposition right now).

5. To begin some needed lifestyle changes that hopefully will leave me free of most of the nagging pains that I've had the past few years (resigned to the fact that my neck and lower back, with the four bulging disks from my 2003 auto accident, will continue to hurt on occasion for the rest of my life). Perhaps I'll finally achieve the goal I set for myself in my early 20s of benching more than 300 lbs. with free weights (personal best was 270 in 1998, just before I turned 24).

6. To continue writing op-ed pieces for this blog and also for other venues, both in English and for translation into other languages.

7. Related to #6: To strive to improve awareness and communication between various national spec fic communities. This includes trying to help non-Anglophone writers to have more of their stories translated into English...and perhaps to make various authors/critics aware of what's going on outside their own national regions.

8. To observe Squirrel Appreciation Day this year. I've been slack in my observance, to say the least, and the rodent overlords are not pleased...

9. To write a more comprehensive 2010 in Review series of posts compared to years past.

And that's about that. Have already been off to a good start. First book read/completed in 2010 was a debut novel by N.K. Jemisin called The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. This was a very good book with which to start the year. Hope to review it before its February 25 release date. Also read part of the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of Alaska Quarterly Review and began reading Caitlín R. Kiernan's 1998 debut novel, Silk. Keeping true so far to my late 2009 resolve to read more quality female writers this year.

Will have the final 2009 reads up in a day or two, perhaps with some facts and figures to go with them. 562 books in total, by far the most I've read in a single year. Don't think I'll try to match that this year.

Depends on a few other things. I think there'll be an increased focus on works that straddle the mimetic/speculative "divide."

Cheryl,

There certainly will be a few more reviews this year of non-English works. Expecting a shipment to arrive later this month that will contain a couple of books by Portuguese author David Soares. Plus I believe Fábio is sending me some Brazilian works (including his first full-length novel in a while) in the near future as well.

E.L.,

Actually most of the goals are just continuations of I've already done. #1 will certainly be accomplished unless something very serious happens. And hey, if the Chinese had 13 animals in their zodiac, certainly 2010 would be the Year of the Squirrel, so why not honor the most evil of rodents? :P